so, if you are using point buy and are playing as a variant human you can end up with an abillity score array of 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 11, and i think that playing such a bard with aq score of in 11 strength and 14 in all other abillity scores might be rather iunteresting, but i am a bit worried that not having a +3 in the main spellcasting score is somehow a bit crippling. I donno is having opponents suceed on their saving throws 5% more often, healing one less hit point with healing word and having one fewer usage of bardic inspiration per short/long rest that big of a deal? Would this most well-rounded fellow be significantly outclassed by a more senisibly built character or would the difference be insignificant?
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I'd say you should definitely put more stuff into Charisma. Along with that, you can lessen Intelligence down to 12 or 10.
you are not answering my question dude, i am already aware that dumping int and putting as high a score as possible into charisma is the normal, sensible thing to do, the thing that would technically be optimal utillity-wise, my question was precisely not how one would improve the mega-14 abillity score array or even if i should play a character with 14 charisma, my question was merely how much i would be loosing in the end by taking the more flavorful approach, what the price of the gimmic will be
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Personally I think that having at least one bad stat is great fun in game and the more terrible it is the more fun it can be. I had a Bard that had a 5 in strength and it was fun to play because he basically convinced his teammates to carry all his stuff and even carry himself so he could conserve strength. But that aside lets get to what you're really asking.
Because you're a bard, having a lower Charisma score is of course bad. It relates to most of your abilities (Spell Attacks Roles, Spell DC, the amount of Bardic Inspiration you have). A single +1 to a skill makes a huge difference when it comes to nearly anything you're doing with your Bard. I'm no sure what flavorful approach you're attempting, but I do not believe it would be worth it at the cost of lessening your over all abilities as a bard.
Keeping everything to a 14 is likely going to wind up with you feeling like dead weight on the campaign, first off. You want to excel somewhere I would think and Cha is the best option for the Bard. The 5% resists and hits will wear on you after a time (unless the dice gods love you and it's not noticeable) Being "meh" at all the stuff might seem interesting, but I truly believe it will wear on you, never being the one to have the spotlight, outside lucky rolls, and everyone else will also get those.
You want interesting and fun, as another said, DUMP a stat badly that you can RP with some fun. Int is a good choice, to be charismatic and street wise, but dumb as a rock on many things. Strength is a possible dump, scrawny little fellow barely able to hoist a pan flute to play it. I have seen characters that spread wise and they tend to be more a sidekick than anything, OR they tend to horn in on everyone's "thing" eventually drawing some resentment from the rest of the group. Being "ok" at everything, when everyone around you is good at something is....humbling?
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Charisma ties into spell casting modifiers, and bards already have issues at lower levels because they simply do not have access to attack roll based cantrips. They are all save or suck.
Also ties directly into how many bardic inspiration die you have, and until you hit a higher level and gain them back on a short rest, being limited to 2 per day, when your class gimmick is that you help others kind of blows.
Spell Selection, honestly you could get creative and choose spells that don't rely so heavily on your DCs. Healing Word, Color Spray, Sleep and Disguise Self would all be decent choices. Healing Word does use the CHA modifer for the plus to heals, and Disguise Self does use a spell DC, which at level 1 would be 12. A commoner with +0 to investigation would beat that about 40% of the time. As you get into later levels though, keeping your spell list focused around your lower CHA modifier will become more difficult to do and could potentially prove detrimental to your party.
Subclass wise, all level 3 bards have some ability powered by their inspiration die, which you already extremely limited. Now powering your subclass effects vs helping your allies becomes an even harder choice.
Combine this with 14 Dex, and your other mode of attack isn't all that great either. It's definitely doable at lower levels, but you're going to be spending your ASIs up to 12 getting that 20 CHA so you can be more effective in your other bardly natures and getting your subclass features online more often.
From a flavor standpoint, bard doesn't hurt nearly as much with slightly lower ability scores in certain areas thanks to Jack of All Trades. The difference between 10 STR and 11 is some carrying capacity, and the the difference between 14 and 12 stats is one point of a saving throw and one point of those skills, which are already boosted by jack of all trades and the fact that bards get more skills than most other classes anyway.
I’m currently playing a divine soul sorcerer with well-rounded stats. She had only 15 cha until level 4 when I bumped it to 16 with a half-stat feat. There have been a couple of occasions I was done dirty by my low spell DC’s but I haven’t felt crippled by the mere +2 to the point of dismay. The group I play in occupies the low optimized end of the spectrum though. You might feel overshadowed if the other players are working the system hard. As well, my character doesn’t rely on her cha to gain uses of any class feature. Bardic Inspiration is kind of a big deal; I sure wouldn’t settle for 14 cha on a sorcerer if I got sorcery points from the stat.
I think if I were remaking my character, I’d prolly stick with conventional wisdom and use a higher cha score. Not that the current setup is a terrible experience, it’s that I haven’t noticed any appreciable advantage to having the other slightly elevated stats that I do so it seems a pointless reduction to the one stat that really does matter.
A Bard with a 14 in Charisma will be able to give out two Bardic Inspiration per Long Rest, until you get Song of Inspiration, and then it changes to two per Short Rest. Other abilities, like Cutting Words, that are charged by Bardic Inspiration will suffer the same penalty.
All spell DCs rely on your Charisma Modifier, so you are 5% less effective on all spells that require any save.
Since other builds also use Charisma, you may not even be the social face of the party unless your skill in RP causes the party to want you to play the face anyway, in which case every time the DM calls for a Charisma check you are 5-10% less likely to succeed on behalf of your party. If a party member has a higher Charisma score (likely) it will end up being that much less time for you to be The Player in the moment.
On the plus side, you will be a little more skill monkey because other than Athletics, you will have an ability +2 modifier in every skill check stat. In many Bard builds, there are one or two more +1 ability score modifiers.
It always depends on the DM and your party, but I don't think many Bard players would enjoy this build. If you switched the 11 around to something else, what classes would you want to play with this build?
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Bards use Charisma for a lot of their best spells, it also determines how many uses of Bardic Inspiration you get, and even if your character isn't intended to be the party's face, you may still want to use persuasion, deception and other Charisma based checks from time to time.
I think in general I wouldn't recommend such a spread of points on most characters; you can get away with it on a Fighter because they get the extra ability score increases, but for anything else I always prefer to have one or two weak ability scores so I can boost the ones I need the most.
I'm playing a Bard in one of my current two campaigns and he has Strength and Constitution 8 making him physically weak, but high Charisma gives him solid spell-casting, more uses of Bardic Inspiration, and high Dexterity gives me a reasonable ability to avoid damage combined with liberal use of cover or spells (for my College of Lore extra Magical Secrets I recently grabbed Armor of Agathys which is a pretty good boost), while middleground Intelligence and Wisdom keeps him flexible on skill rolls (which Bards excel at unless you're me because my rolling is terrible). I enjoy this, as I like playing into the clear weaknesses, and it makes combat very exciting as I have to balance the desire to be a coward and keep my character safe against being within range to cast what I need to.
Bards use Charisma for a lot of their best spells, it also determines how many uses of Bardic Inspiration you get, and even if your character isn't intended to be the party's face, you may still want to use persuasion, deception and other Charisma based checks from time to time.
I think in general I wouldn't recommend such a spread of points on most characters; you can get away with it on a Fighter because they get the extra ability score increases, but for anything else I always prefer to have one or two weak ability scores so I can boost the ones I need the most.
I'm playing a Bard in one of my current two campaigns and he has Strength and Constitution 8 making him physically weak, but high Charisma gives him solid spell-casting, more uses of Bardic Inspiration, and high Dexterity gives me a reasonable ability to avoid damage combined with liberal use of cover or spells (for my College of Lore extra Magical Secrets I recently grabbed Armor of Agathys which is a pretty good boost), while middleground Intelligence and Wisdom keeps him flexible on skill rolls (which Bards excel at unless you're me because my rolling is terrible). I enjoy this, as I like playing into the clear weaknesses, and it makes combat very exciting as I have to balance the desire to be a coward and keep my character safe against being within range to cast what I need to.
This is one thing I have found about bards...you can cover your low ASI up in a LOT of ways. This is a good example with Armor of Agathys as you get a large amount of THP to cover your low CON score.
Damage is the only real things bards lack in so getting a damaging cantrip of some kind would be a secondary priority for me personally.
Bards use Charisma for a lot of their best spells, it also determines how many uses of Bardic Inspiration you get, and even if your character isn't intended to be the party's face, you may still want to use persuasion, deception and other Charisma based checks from time to time.
I think in general I wouldn't recommend such a spread of points on most characters; you can get away with it on a Fighter because they get the extra ability score increases, but for anything else I always prefer to have one or two weak ability scores so I can boost the ones I need the most.
I'm playing a Bard in one of my current two campaigns and he has Strength and Constitution 8 making him physically weak, but high Charisma gives him solid spell-casting, more uses of Bardic Inspiration, and high Dexterity gives me a reasonable ability to avoid damage combined with liberal use of cover or spells (for my College of Lore extra Magical Secrets I recently grabbed Armor of Agathys which is a pretty good boost), while middleground Intelligence and Wisdom keeps him flexible on skill rolls (which Bards excel at unless you're me because my rolling is terrible). I enjoy this, as I like playing into the clear weaknesses, and it makes combat very exciting as I have to balance the desire to be a coward and keep my character safe against being within range to cast what I need to.
This is one thing I have found about bards...you can cover your low ASI up in a LOT of ways. This is a good example with Armor of Agathys as you get a large amount of THP to cover your low CON score.
Damage is the only real things bards lack in so getting a damaging cantrip of some kind would be a secondary priority for me personally.
if we are going to talk about spells that cover up for a bad abillity scores we gotta mention cloud of daggers right? Becuase i seriously did not know that it lacks a saving throw until i was working on an 8 cha clockwork soul sorcerer (something that is surprisingly doable, none of their class features actually rely on charisma unlike bards)
as for the people asking why i would ever do this and what enjoyment i might find from such an array well i kinda figured out the point array and the fact that you can do this nonsense first and then thought about what character this array might fit second, thinking of the classical "jack of all trades" and what that might do for them, seeing as to their rather plentiful skills, expertise and jack of all trades, such a character might work as the companion to an mountain dwarf artificer who uses the linneage rules to serve 100% of the services needed on a ship, and such an abillity score array perfectly fits the archetype of what an bard is supposed to be, jack of all trades, master of none, full of wit, intuition and some straight knowledge about all manner of things gathered through the oral tradition. Yeah such a character is probably more boring than one with clear flaws, a "mary sue" as it were does not leave way for many roleplaying opportunities, i just think such a character would be pretty nifty
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Bards use Charisma for a lot of their best spells, it also determines how many uses of Bardic Inspiration you get, and even if your character isn't intended to be the party's face, you may still want to use persuasion, deception and other Charisma based checks from time to time.
I think in general I wouldn't recommend such a spread of points on most characters; you can get away with it on a Fighter because they get the extra ability score increases, but for anything else I always prefer to have one or two weak ability scores so I can boost the ones I need the most.
I'm playing a Bard in one of my current two campaigns and he has Strength and Constitution 8 making him physically weak, but high Charisma gives him solid spell-casting, more uses of Bardic Inspiration, and high Dexterity gives me a reasonable ability to avoid damage combined with liberal use of cover or spells (for my College of Lore extra Magical Secrets I recently grabbed Armor of Agathys which is a pretty good boost), while middleground Intelligence and Wisdom keeps him flexible on skill rolls (which Bards excel at unless you're me because my rolling is terrible). I enjoy this, as I like playing into the clear weaknesses, and it makes combat very exciting as I have to balance the desire to be a coward and keep my character safe against being within range to cast what I need to.
This is one thing I have found about bards...you can cover your low ASI up in a LOT of ways. This is a good example with Armor of Agathys as you get a large amount of THP to cover your low CON score.
Damage is the only real things bards lack in so getting a damaging cantrip of some kind would be a secondary priority for me personally.
if we are going to talk about spells that cover up for a bad abillity scores we gotta mention cloud of daggers right? Becuase i seriously did not know that it lacks a saving throw until i was working on an 8 cha clockwork soul sorcerer (something that is surprisingly doable, none of their class features actually rely on charisma unlike bards)
as for the people asking why i would ever do this and what enjoyment i might find from such an array well i kinda figured out the point array and the fact that you can do this nonsense first and then thought about what character this array might fit second, thinking of the classical "jack of all trades" and what that might do for them, seeing as to their rather plentiful skills, expertise and jack of all trades, such a character might work as the companion to an mountain dwarf artificer who uses the linneage rules to serve 100% of the services needed on a ship, and such an abillity score array perfectly fits the archetype of what an bard is supposed to be, jack of all trades, master of none, full of wit, intuition and some straight knowledge about all manner of things gathered through the oral tradition. Yeah such a character is probably more boring than one with clear flaws, a "mary sue" as it were does not leave way for many roleplaying opportunities, i just think such a character would be pretty nifty
Nah no need to justify that is fair. And yeah you are right about the Cloud...good for those low CHA builds!
It is perfectly fine, depending on the adventure and DM. If you tend to roll a lot of skill checks, being well balanced helps.
-1 DC is as mentioned only 5% less chance. A 1 in 20 chance. If you take buff spells, you don't need it anyway.
- depending on the subclass choice, only 2 bardic inspirations is not too bad. You might be bonus action starved anyway (if you use twf for example or cast healing word).
In my opinion, a valour bard can get away with it very well. 14 Dex suffices if you wear medium armor, you don't need inspiration for fancy stuff like cutting words or flourishes... Although a college of sword bards at level 14 gets an unlimited number of extra bardic dies.
I personally tried a goliath valour bard (level 7) with 16 Str/Con and only 14 Charisma in the aolo adventure provided in the dragon magzine this winter. It worked very well. We were easily be able to kill the end boss without a problem. In a crucial situation I could help my teammate not being hit. To be honest, no matter how many uses I have, I am cautious to use them anyway.
so I calculated it with point buy and this is what I did of course this is what I would personaly do and I often make mistakes that make me usefull in one and only one thing
str 10
dex 14
con 13
int 10
wis 12
cha 16
or 10 wis and 14 con
(and I have no idea how did you get five 14 when I was counting I got it much lower)
so I calculated it with point buy and this is what I did of course this is what I would personaly do and I often make mistakes that make me usefull in one and only one thing
str 10
dex 14
con 13
int 10
wis 12
cha 16
or 10 wis and 14 con
(and I have no idea how did you get five 14 when I was counting I got it much lower)
no idea what you are doing with these score, but the way i got the stat array described in the original post was i put 5 points into dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma, granting me a score of 13 in each of those scores and then i put my two remaining points into strength, giving me an strength score of 10. 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 2 = 27. If you then add the abillity score increase from being a human you get a score of 11 in strength and 14 in every other abillity score (as humans increase each of their abillity scores by 1, in other words humans get +1 str, +1 dex, +1 con, +1 int, +1 wis, +1 cha). I think the misstake you made was both in regards to how the Abillity Score Increase trait of the human works and in the assumption that it was 14 in almost every stat without additing ASI's when it was in fact ASI's included
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so, if you are using point buy and are playing as a variant human you can end up with an abillity score array of 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 11, and i think that playing such a bard with aq score of in 11 strength and 14 in all other abillity scores might be rather iunteresting, but i am a bit worried that not having a +3 in the main spellcasting score is somehow a bit crippling. I donno is having opponents suceed on their saving throws 5% more often, healing one less hit point with healing word and having one fewer usage of bardic inspiration per short/long rest that big of a deal? Would this most well-rounded fellow be significantly outclassed by a more senisibly built character or would the difference be insignificant?
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I'd say you should definitely put more stuff into Charisma. Along with that, you can lessen Intelligence down to 12 or 10.
you are not answering my question dude, i am already aware that dumping int and putting as high a score as possible into charisma is the normal, sensible thing to do, the thing that would technically be optimal utillity-wise, my question was precisely not how one would improve the mega-14 abillity score array or even if i should play a character with 14 charisma, my question was merely how much i would be loosing in the end by taking the more flavorful approach, what the price of the gimmic will be
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Personally I think that having at least one bad stat is great fun in game and the more terrible it is the more fun it can be. I had a Bard that had a 5 in strength and it was fun to play because he basically convinced his teammates to carry all his stuff and even carry himself so he could conserve strength. But that aside lets get to what you're really asking.
Because you're a bard, having a lower Charisma score is of course bad. It relates to most of your abilities (Spell Attacks Roles, Spell DC, the amount of Bardic Inspiration you have). A single +1 to a skill makes a huge difference when it comes to nearly anything you're doing with your Bard. I'm no sure what flavorful approach you're attempting, but I do not believe it would be worth it at the cost of lessening your over all abilities as a bard.
Keeping everything to a 14 is likely going to wind up with you feeling like dead weight on the campaign, first off. You want to excel somewhere I would think and Cha is the best option for the Bard. The 5% resists and hits will wear on you after a time (unless the dice gods love you and it's not noticeable) Being "meh" at all the stuff might seem interesting, but I truly believe it will wear on you, never being the one to have the spotlight, outside lucky rolls, and everyone else will also get those.
You want interesting and fun, as another said, DUMP a stat badly that you can RP with some fun. Int is a good choice, to be charismatic and street wise, but dumb as a rock on many things. Strength is a possible dump, scrawny little fellow barely able to hoist a pan flute to play it. I have seen characters that spread wise and they tend to be more a sidekick than anything, OR they tend to horn in on everyone's "thing" eventually drawing some resentment from the rest of the group. Being "ok" at everything, when everyone around you is good at something is....humbling?
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
Depends on how high the campaign goes.
Charisma ties into spell casting modifiers, and bards already have issues at lower levels because they simply do not have access to attack roll based cantrips. They are all save or suck.
Also ties directly into how many bardic inspiration die you have, and until you hit a higher level and gain them back on a short rest, being limited to 2 per day, when your class gimmick is that you help others kind of blows.
Spell Selection, honestly you could get creative and choose spells that don't rely so heavily on your DCs. Healing Word, Color Spray, Sleep and Disguise Self would all be decent choices. Healing Word does use the CHA modifer for the plus to heals, and Disguise Self does use a spell DC, which at level 1 would be 12. A commoner with +0 to investigation would beat that about 40% of the time. As you get into later levels though, keeping your spell list focused around your lower CHA modifier will become more difficult to do and could potentially prove detrimental to your party.
Subclass wise, all level 3 bards have some ability powered by their inspiration die, which you already extremely limited. Now powering your subclass effects vs helping your allies becomes an even harder choice.
Combine this with 14 Dex, and your other mode of attack isn't all that great either. It's definitely doable at lower levels, but you're going to be spending your ASIs up to 12 getting that 20 CHA so you can be more effective in your other bardly natures and getting your subclass features online more often.
From a flavor standpoint, bard doesn't hurt nearly as much with slightly lower ability scores in certain areas thanks to Jack of All Trades. The difference between 10 STR and 11 is some carrying capacity, and the the difference between 14 and 12 stats is one point of a saving throw and one point of those skills, which are already boosted by jack of all trades and the fact that bards get more skills than most other classes anyway.
I’m currently playing a divine soul sorcerer with well-rounded stats. She had only 15 cha until level 4 when I bumped it to 16 with a half-stat feat. There have been a couple of occasions I was done dirty by my low spell DC’s but I haven’t felt crippled by the mere +2 to the point of dismay. The group I play in occupies the low optimized end of the spectrum though. You might feel overshadowed if the other players are working the system hard. As well, my character doesn’t rely on her cha to gain uses of any class feature. Bardic Inspiration is kind of a big deal; I sure wouldn’t settle for 14 cha on a sorcerer if I got sorcery points from the stat.
I think if I were remaking my character, I’d prolly stick with conventional wisdom and use a higher cha score. Not that the current setup is a terrible experience, it’s that I haven’t noticed any appreciable advantage to having the other slightly elevated stats that I do so it seems a pointless reduction to the one stat that really does matter.
I think the most limiting of all those is having less uses of Bardic Inspiration.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
A Bard with a 14 in Charisma will be able to give out two Bardic Inspiration per Long Rest, until you get Song of Inspiration, and then it changes to two per Short Rest. Other abilities, like Cutting Words, that are charged by Bardic Inspiration will suffer the same penalty.
All spell DCs rely on your Charisma Modifier, so you are 5% less effective on all spells that require any save.
Since other builds also use Charisma, you may not even be the social face of the party unless your skill in RP causes the party to want you to play the face anyway, in which case every time the DM calls for a Charisma check you are 5-10% less likely to succeed on behalf of your party. If a party member has a higher Charisma score (likely) it will end up being that much less time for you to be The Player in the moment.
On the plus side, you will be a little more skill monkey because other than Athletics, you will have an ability +2 modifier in every skill check stat. In many Bard builds, there are one or two more +1 ability score modifiers.
It always depends on the DM and your party, but I don't think many Bard players would enjoy this build. If you switched the 11 around to something else, what classes would you want to play with this build?
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Bards use Charisma for a lot of their best spells, it also determines how many uses of Bardic Inspiration you get, and even if your character isn't intended to be the party's face, you may still want to use persuasion, deception and other Charisma based checks from time to time.
I think in general I wouldn't recommend such a spread of points on most characters; you can get away with it on a Fighter because they get the extra ability score increases, but for anything else I always prefer to have one or two weak ability scores so I can boost the ones I need the most.
I'm playing a Bard in one of my current two campaigns and he has Strength and Constitution 8 making him physically weak, but high Charisma gives him solid spell-casting, more uses of Bardic Inspiration, and high Dexterity gives me a reasonable ability to avoid damage combined with liberal use of cover or spells (for my College of Lore extra Magical Secrets I recently grabbed Armor of Agathys which is a pretty good boost), while middleground Intelligence and Wisdom keeps him flexible on skill rolls (which Bards excel at unless you're me because my rolling is terrible). I enjoy this, as I like playing into the clear weaknesses, and it makes combat very exciting as I have to balance the desire to be a coward and keep my character safe against being within range to cast what I need to.
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This is one thing I have found about bards...you can cover your low ASI up in a LOT of ways. This is a good example with Armor of Agathys as you get a large amount of THP to cover your low CON score.
Damage is the only real things bards lack in so getting a damaging cantrip of some kind would be a secondary priority for me personally.
if we are going to talk about spells that cover up for a bad abillity scores we gotta mention cloud of daggers right? Becuase i seriously did not know that it lacks a saving throw until i was working on an 8 cha clockwork soul sorcerer (something that is surprisingly doable, none of their class features actually rely on charisma unlike bards)
as for the people asking why i would ever do this and what enjoyment i might find from such an array well i kinda figured out the point array and the fact that you can do this nonsense first and then thought about what character this array might fit second, thinking of the classical "jack of all trades" and what that might do for them, seeing as to their rather plentiful skills, expertise and jack of all trades, such a character might work as the companion to an mountain dwarf artificer who uses the linneage rules to serve 100% of the services needed on a ship, and such an abillity score array perfectly fits the archetype of what an bard is supposed to be, jack of all trades, master of none, full of wit, intuition and some straight knowledge about all manner of things gathered through the oral tradition. Yeah such a character is probably more boring than one with clear flaws, a "mary sue" as it were does not leave way for many roleplaying opportunities, i just think such a character would be pretty nifty
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Nah no need to justify that is fair. And yeah you are right about the Cloud...good for those low CHA builds!
It is perfectly fine, depending on the adventure and DM. If you tend to roll a lot of skill checks, being well balanced helps.
-1 DC is as mentioned only 5% less chance. A 1 in 20 chance. If you take buff spells, you don't need it anyway.
- depending on the subclass choice, only 2 bardic inspirations is not too bad. You might be bonus action starved anyway (if you use twf for example or cast healing word).
In my opinion, a valour bard can get away with it very well. 14 Dex suffices if you wear medium armor, you don't need inspiration for fancy stuff like cutting words or flourishes... Although a college of sword bards at level 14 gets an unlimited number of extra bardic dies.
I personally tried a goliath valour bard (level 7) with 16 Str/Con and only 14 Charisma in the aolo adventure provided in the dragon magzine this winter. It worked very well. We were easily be able to kill the end boss without a problem. In a crucial situation I could help my teammate not being hit. To be honest, no matter how many uses I have, I am cautious to use them anyway.
so I calculated it with point buy and this is what I did of course this is what I would personaly do and I often make mistakes that make me usefull in one and only one thing
str 10
dex 14
con 13
int 10
wis 12
cha 16
or 10 wis and 14 con
(and I have no idea how did you get five 14 when I was counting I got it much lower)
no idea what you are doing with these score, but the way i got the stat array described in the original post was i put 5 points into dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma, granting me a score of 13 in each of those scores and then i put my two remaining points into strength, giving me an strength score of 10. 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 2 = 27. If you then add the abillity score increase from being a human you get a score of 11 in strength and 14 in every other abillity score (as humans increase each of their abillity scores by 1, in other words humans get +1 str, +1 dex, +1 con, +1 int, +1 wis, +1 cha). I think the misstake you made was both in regards to how the Abillity Score Increase trait of the human works and in the assumption that it was 14 in almost every stat without additing ASI's when it was in fact ASI's included
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes